Would I gain anything by putting on an electric fan? I have searched and the reviews are mixed, saying that the alternator will be loaded more often, resulting in zero fuel economy/power gain. I'm mostly driving @ 80km/h, so I know it wont be on all the time.

- The fan... Perma-cool 16", 2000cfm. Variable temp controller. Left over from a dodge project, long since scrapped.
- The truck... 1988 F250 351w on propane. ZF5 speed, A/C, Power Steering. 6"lift, 35" tires.
- Its purpose... Mostly highway/country driving. Towing. Some 4x4 trails and city driving.

Your thoughts?

 

With electric the heat gets hotter faster, because the fans not cooling as much,i personally have no fan on my truck and as long as im not sitting in traffic for ten min at a time its good. Seems electric would be the way to go simply because it isnt on all the time,so alt would only be loaded if sitting still or moving pretty slow. Unless u have air.

 

An electric fan will never run at highway speeds on these trucks.. just the air passing through the rad is enough to cool the motor so I think you will see an overall milage gain with your driving habits.

 

I like my electric fan, it doesn't run most of the time. Usually only begins to run when I'm stopped, idling, or using low gear off road. After I shut off the truck it runs for a very long time, but surprisingly doesn't drain the battery. So if you have a bad battery you may want to rig it to a switch, or an ignition source.

 

I had the big twin Flex-a-lite on my F350. With the electric fan my F350 could not tow my 3500# trailer without overheating. I towed the same trailer with a Toyota Tacoma no problem. So I swapped to a regular fan-shroud-clutch setup and am now able to tow 10,000# trailers with no overheating at all.

Short version: Electric fans are junk if you want to tow. I did get about 1 mpg better with the electric.

 

Why not replace the battery with a good one?

 

Hehe cause the cost of a new one would offset the MPG gains. Although I like my setup I can't say there are many if any MPG gains and towing certainly does suffer a lot.

 

If you are going to tow really HEAVY loads, stay with a clutch fan. Otherwise, you are fine with the electric fan.

 

Ive done both setups, like the e fan idea especially for crossing ponds......, but it has let me down, i'm back to stock clutch fan and am not touching it, that works for me , later all

 

i vote electric fan for all the reasons already stated.

 

Thanks all.

I'm going to do it. Afterwards I will take my loaded flat deck trailer up some long hills while watching the temp gauge closely. It has got to be around 4500lbs with 2 quads and a rhino on it.

Watch for the results...

 

For anybody that made the switch to e-fan, what did you do about the fan shroud? Did you make or buy a new fan shroud for the e-fan? Did you leave the stock shroud on there? Did you run without a shroud?

 

and how do they handle being caked with mud and submurged in water?

 

My radiator stops being able to pass air and the fan continues on.

 

The results are in...

I ran the truck to get the baseline temperature setting to when it turns on... took about 20 minutes to begin with. I set it @ about 180*. On the city streets it would intermittently come to life and shut down about 45 seconds later. So far so good.

I wired the system up to my a/c compressor clutch, so I get an extra cold blast of air whenever running it. Works really good.

I don't think it came on down the highway, towing 5000lbs worth of trailer and toys, the temp gauge read around 175*, even when passing the gray-hairs in hondas. When I pulled off the highway, the temperature spiked and the fan whirred for 3 minutes, but didn't hit past 195*.

The real test was a steep, winding gravel road which leads past my house and up to some fishing lakes. Pulling my toys, mostly in 3rd gear, sometimes 4th, the gauge started reaching close to 205* but not for too long. I pulled over and tried adjusting the temp control to come on @ 170* before continuing up the road, and it seemed to do the trick, maintaining 195*.

I now have 2 marks on my adjustment dial, one for standard driving and 1 for towing. I haven't towed anything heavier, nor will I need to. I think it worked well for a swap comprised of leftover parts.